Exiger Exchange with Kit Conklin

Trade wars are hard to win but new weapons change that. Soumaya Keynes, Financial Times economics columnist, co-author of How to Win a Trade War: An Optimistic Guide to an Anxious Global Economy, and host of FT’s The Economics Show, joins Kit Conklin to explain why stockpiling, industrial policy, digital services taxes and other tools once dismissed as outdated are back in fashion as countries and companies race to win in an increasingly fragmented global order. The old rules of global trade were built for a unipolar world that no longer exists. Now, as production concentrates in fewer hands and blocs harden around the US and China, countries and companies are being forced to ask an uncomfortable question: what happens when the tools of economic statecraft stop being defensive and start being offensive? Spoiler alert: there is room for optimism, but only for those willing to rethink strategies that used to be considered off-limits. 

Apple helped build extraordinary manufacturing capacity in China, but that success also created dependency and loss of domestic know-how. Patrick McGee, New York Times bestselling author of Apple in China, joins Kit Conklin to explain how Apple trained tens of millions of workers, raised the quality standards, and helped make China the leader in consumer technology manufacturing. From China’s efforts to lure western tech companies, to Intel-TSMC competition, to the promise of innovators like Tesla and SpaceX, the conversation considers what leaders should do when supply chains and production built for profitability become questions of power, leverage and economic security. 

The next defense advantage may come down to who can build, replace, and adapt faster. Brett Freedman, Senior Director of Emerging Technology at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, fellow at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law,  Partner at Gray Space Strategies, and a former senior national security official across DOJ, NSA, the White House, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, joins Kit Conklin to examine why drones, batteries, export controls, and enforcement now sit at the center of economic security and thus national security. From Ukraine’s drone lessons and U.S. manufacturing constraints to FISA 702, CFIUS, and DOJ’s National Security Division, hear why companies need to take risks and work with government to tackle the choke points our adversaries still control. 

America does not need to stop selling McDonald’s hamburgers in China, but the West does need to think differently about derisking critical supply chains, capital markets, and trade. In this episode, Hudson Institute Senior Fellow and author Michael Sobolik joins Kit Conklin to examine the uneasy balance between U.S.-China economic engagement and strategic competition. From the ongoing trade detente to the Trump-Xi summit and new economic security restrictions, the conversation explores where CEOs should draw the line between pursuing growth in China and protecting the technologies, infrastructure, and industrial capacity that underpins U.S. and Western national security.

Geopolitical intelligence used to live in classified government briefings. Jeremy Dicker took it mainstream and made it enjoyable to read. He spent 14 years as an Australian diplomat, received Peru's Presidential Order of Merit, then co-founded International Intrigue, now read by hundreds of thousands of leaders worldwide, from prime ministers to Fortune 500 CEOs. It's written by ex-diplomats and takes under 5 meme-worthy minutes to read.Kit talks with Jeremy about why every country is rewriting its trade playbook, how Australia's standoff with Chinese economic coercion changed the game, which countries CEOs should be watching right now, and why "raw brain power" has become one of the most fought-over exports in geopolitics.